ST. LOUIS, SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ., AND BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA — Nestlé Purina PetCare announced that it has implemented a new category management solution and virtual reality technology to support its retail partners. The pet food and supplies company has partnered with Blue Yonder, a provider of digital supply chain and fulfillment solutions and 3DVR Solutions (3DVRS).
Purina offers more than 20 pet care brands across the United States, feeding approximately 65 million dogs and 51 million cats annually, according to the company. The company provides its retail partners with planograms, which create shelves to improve product merchandising and meet customer needs. With travel still restricted by COVID-19, Purina has sought to provide its associates with a remote way to collaborate with retail partners, partnering with Blue Yonder and 3DVRS.
3DVRS offers a Retail Visualization Suite (RVS) virtual reality headset that combines Blue Yonder’s planogram data with virtual reality capabilities, providing Purina partners with an avatar-based interactive merchandising solution. The integrated system brings Purina associates and retail partners together in the metaverse, allowing them to plan and interact with each other.
“The integration of 3DVRS with Blue Yonder provides flexibility, speed and scalability, giving us the ability to effectively deploy across the enterprise,” said Gene Feldman, training manager at Purina. “The evolution from virtual reality on the desktop to network avatars in the RVS VR Headset solution went smoothly. We can now hold meetings virtually in the metaverse, interact with layouts, products and innovations stores, which allows us to be at the forefront.
Since implementing the metaverse system, Purina has eliminated the need for a physical store to create shelving solutions, reduced travel and environmental impact, decreased training costs, reduced the time required to market a shelf, integrated real-world factors into retail shelf planning, and established partnerships to improve the in-store customer journey.
“Working with 3DVRS has allowed us to bring Blue Yonder’s planograms to life in the metaverse where users can market, analyze, interact and meet as avatars to design shelves that meet customer needs,” said Phillip. Teschemacher, vice president of manufacturing for the EMEA region. to Blue Over There. “This is cutting-edge technology at its best and Purina was one of the first companies to benefit from it. By creating a culture of innovation and thought leadership throughout the organization, Purina creates a great place to work for its associates and retail partners. »
The combined solutions of Blue Yonder and 3DVRS have enabled Purina’s retail partners to make fast and accurate space allocation decisions to help their customers find products more easily and improve the overall shopping experience.
“Purina is a fantastic partner to innovate with, as they are always on the lookout for the latest technologies to give their business the edge,” said Nigel Hemer, Founder and CEO of 3DVRS. “The challenges they presented pushed technological boundaries. Our integration with Blue Yonder gives us the platform to support large companies such as Purina. It’s great to bring new technologies to market that make a real difference. It’s amazing what we’ve already achieved together, but I feel there’s still a lot to come.
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